Analysing all the Champions Trophy squads
India, Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are in - but where’s Pakistan?
It's very important that you know that no one plays ODIs anymore. I mean, right now, England and India have a series against each other that is five T20 Internationals and only three ODIs before a 50-over Champions Trophy. So I don't know how seriously you could say anyone is taking the Champions Trophy if this is the kind of shenaniganizing that we see happening.
In fact, the only teams that played ODIs since the last World Cup are Associate teams that are absolutely 100 percent not invited to the Champions Trophy. So what we have is a sense of randomness for this tournament, which is what you want for a tournament that some people think is major. It is probably minor, but it definitely exists and they wear white jackets.
India
Group A is the easy group. Let's start with India. I think the most interesting thing here is the absence of Mohammed Siraj. I don't really know how to have that conversation fully, but how has he gone from someone who can absolutely destroy worlds with a white ball – in fact, he has a brilliant ODI record – to someone who is not even in the squad? It feels like a big fall from grace.
It could just be that India are looking at this and going, well, we've got Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami. If we need a third seamer, maybe we can come up with someone who's a little bit more dependable, but maybe not quite as exciting. Or, their games are going to be in the UAE and they don't think they need a third seamer anyway. I don't know. But Mohammed Siraj is out.
The rest of the names there I think are fairly normal. It's what you would expect. I'd like to apologise to all the Karun Nair fans who are just absolutely disgusted with the fact that he didn't come in, but they've got lots of batting talent. This isn't really an issue. I wonder if Kuldeep Yadav is a little bit more injured - or gets injured again - if we will see Varun Chakravarthy.
But all things considered, they've got heaps of all-round options. They can mix and match in any fashion they want. But most importantly, they just have to keep slogging the ball. I don't think any of us are willing to accept them coming in and losing the Champions Trophy because they're chipping the ball around.
They've shown what slogging can do. Let's just go all in on slogging chaps. No need for anything else. I don't want to see anchors. I don't want to see turning the ball for one. I just want to see backing away and hitting everything over extra cover for six, the way that nature intended cricket to be played.
Bangladesh
The Bangladesh team is the biggest outsider in this tournament. And if you've ever seen them play white-ball cricket, you probably understand why. In fact, if I'm Sri Lanka or West Indies, I'm like, ‘How has this happened? How did we end up here?’
Litton Das is probably the player that everyone expected to be in the squad and isn't.
However, if you look at his ODI record, he averages 30 at a strike rate of 86. He’s not getting you particularly fast starts and he's not making a lot of runs. It doesn't really make a lot of sense to bring him in.
In 2023, he played 29 ODIs and he averaged 26. Then he played five more in 2024 and he averaged 1.2. His highest score was 4. He faced 32 deliveries. He had a strike rate of 18.75. Six runs. He made six runs. I don't even know who I'm talking to anymore.
It gets better too. He played all of his ODIs against Sri Lanka and the West Indies. Literally the two teams that didn't even qualify for this Champions Trophy.
Shakib Al Hasan is probably on the shortlist of one of the greatest ODI allrounders of all time. But he can't bowl anymore. And also, there's a lot of baggage with him at the moment. There's just a lot going on with Shakib, so he's not here as well. Perhaps the most exciting thing about Bangladesh in an ODI is you get three spells of Nahid Rana, who bowls really fast and people do not like facing him. He's one of the most exciting young bowlers in the world.
New Zealand
That brings us on to New Zealand, who have Tom Latham, Kane Williamson, and Will Young. That batting lineup is as aesthetically pleasing as it gets. The biggest omission is probably Trent Boult. I don't know how available he made himself, but it's quite clear that New Zealand have just decided to move on beyond him.
I don't know if people know this, he's actually a very good bowler. If you go through the history of white-ball tournaments, he's really good in a lot of them. I personally would probably have chosen Boult over not having him, but he's not the only seamer they don't have, because they haven't gone with Jacob Duffy as well.
I'm not sure if Jacob Duffy makes news anywhere. I'm not sure if you've ever heard the term Jacob Duffy before today. But that's two pretty good seamers that they haven't brought out. Having said that, they still have Will O’Rourke, and of course, Matt Henry. They've got a little bit of Ben Sears. (Is Ben Sears fit? Has Ben Sears ever been fit?) And they've also got the all-roundedness of Nathan Smith, who took a really good catch recently. You should check that out.
If you are thinking to yourself, ‘How are they going to win this tournament?’ - well, it's quite simple. They have Mark Chapman and it's going to be played in Pakistan. Mark Chapman in Pakistan is basically like Don Bradman on speed. It's just a sight to watch. So essentially, they just need 10 guys around Chapman and they will win this tournament.
Pakistan
And then we have the Pakistan squad, which is, um, some squad. I think I left it here somewhere on the desk. No. Oh, maybe I threw it out by accident. No, it's not there. Oh, it could be in my pocket. I'll just… no, we don't have a Pakistan squad because why would you want to give us a squad?
The squads were only due on the 12th of January. It's only the 24th of January. Now, Pakistan were not the only team to miss the deadline. But they've now missed the deadline by a significant amount.
Did they forget to reply to the email? Like, what has actually gone on with them? The weirdest thing is, you can actually change your squad up until early February. So they don't have to get their squad to a hundred percent correct. They can make slight tweaks if they need to. It just feels a little bit bizarre.
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